John Kerry

https://www.bustle.com/p/this-photo-of-john-kerry-his-granddaughter-signing-the-paris-deal-is-heartbreaking-61773

After describing Kerry holding his beautiful little granddaughter as he signed for the US at the UN, the article speaks of the speech Kerry gave last November after the election in Marrakech. That conference should have been a last triumph for Kerry after the agreement on methane and the agreement for planes topping a productive year on climate change. The election changed that in an instant.

Here is a quote from the article:

After Trump was elected in November, Kerry gave a speech before the U.N. climate summit in Marrakesh, Morocco. Signaling that he wasn't going to give up the fight against climate change, he made pointed references to Trump's campaign promises. "This is bigger than one person, one president," Kerry said.

I ask you, on behalf of billions of people around the world ... Do your own due diligence before making irrevocable choices. ... No one has a right to make decisions that affect billions of people based on solely ideology or without proper input.
He ended the speech with a reference to his granddaughter, stating, "Let us make clear to the world we will always remember the stakes."

On Thursday, after Trump announced that he would pull the U.S. out of the Paris deal, Kerry issued a scathing statement on Facebook, calling the decision an "abdication of responsibility" and fearing the loss of momentum. But he called for cities, states, and citizens to continue the fight against climate change.

America doesn't have to cede leadership even if its President has. America will not abandon the global community and put its children and grandchildren at risk. While Donald Trump may turn his back on facts and science, America will not.

After seeing his statement and reading this, I remembered the many things that Kerry did that seemed like extraneous activities as secretary of state. In particular I thought of two things. One was a transcript of Kerry engaging with scientists and technologists getting ideas from them, asking them for opinions and encouraging them to work on the finding answers. The other was a conference that he and Michael Bloomberg, then a UN climate change envoy to the cities, held that included mayors from big cities across the world meeting to discuss what they did and what worked and what didn't. Shared information so they could learn from each other. Now with the State Department not leading and Donald Trump running in the wrong direction, those efforts come back to mind. Those connections between cities and between scientists are more important than ever.

Another really encouraging thing is the statement by CA, NY and WA (https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1789301 ) that they are starting a city alliance that will work together. there was also very quickly a long list of mayors committing their cities. ( https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=9146088 )
Obviously, these states and cities had to have made contingency plans that they thought they wouldn't need.